Making the most of Virgin Trains

Friday and Saturday's Pendolino connections to my Eurostar trip were object lessons in the good and the not-so-good aspects of the Virgin Trains services between Birmingham New Street and London Euston.

Let's start off with a 'hidden' good... As a standard class ticket holder with time to kill before my train, New Street can be a depressing and expensive experience. However for £3.50 (the cost of a Virgin Trains only First Class Single to Birmingham International) I was able to wait in comfort in the First Class lounge, enjoy a second breakfast, use the free WiFi, pick up copies of the Independent and Financial Times, and walk to my train with a take-away drink... Oh, and the loo's free too...

The 8.30 Pendolino was waiting for me as I arrived to board it 10 minutes before departure. My reservation was in Coach C and for once the reservation system seemed to be working. What was NOT working were the sockets - memo to self, always check before booting up the laptop. Of course, the train manager couldn't help.

The train wasn't too busy so was relatively comfortable to travel on. Departure was on time and arrival was only slightly late. However, despite the shop being open, there was no announcement about this service made (a regular occurrence these days - do the staff think everyone now knows). Also, disappointingly, Virgin's 'Onboard' replacement for the late-lamented 'Hotline' magazine had not been updated.

Coming back, I was able to join the 1603 departure from Euston. One of the advantages of the Eurostar connection ticket is that the First Class upgrade is available on the train, so I joined a very quiet 'Quiet' coach H. Pleasantly surprised to find that the upgrade now cost only £10 - a veritable bargain when you consider the benefits - which the train manager assured me was due to staff pressure on management. He also told me that the change of price was well publicised BUT you won't know of the new price if you checked the Virgin Trains or National Rail websites, nor have I been overwhelmed by posters at the stations...

This time there was a shop announcement BUT no First Class hosts due to 'staff shortages' Still the Shop host was very friendly and helpful and the complementary first class fare very welcome. WiFi worked fine too, and the journey was speedy.

Overall, Virgin do deliver BUT not fully. One wonders if management's heart really is in the bid to renew the franchise or whether they have thrown in the towel already...